I believe it’s a good day when you learn something new – even when it’s from a book targeted for children. Maybe that makes it even better.
A few weeks ago as I surfed the internet for news, I stumbled across the mention of a Native American author named Willy Whitefeather, who had written an “Outdoor Survival Handbook for Children.”
I am an assistant instructor for our local hunter-safety-education classes. I only teach one section of the textbook used in the class which is primarily geared for youth so that they can obtain their first hunting license in Illinois. That section is on survival and first aid, which I approach from a search-and-rescue standpoint.
So Whitefeather’s survival handbook piqued my interest. I ordered it from my local bookstore and was impressed at how well he presented surviving in the outdoors to kids.
And I learned some things myself.
Whitefeather, an honorary chief of the Black Creek band of Cherokees, saw a need for a book written on a level and in a way that children can easily understand.
“The reason I wrote the survival book was to save a kid’s life,” he explains on his website, “[b]ecause I know of 28 kids that went out into the desert and mountains and never came back.”
The book follows the adventures of Tina and Dooley and their little brother, Tater, who wander too far from their camp.
Some of Whitefeather’s tips are simple, common-sense advice like dragging a stick behind you and following the trail it has made back to camp if you get lost. He has other great tips on marking trails to find the way back to camp or to help searchers find if you can’t get back to camp.
Other outdoor lessons are more complicated like making fires and shelters and how to find edible plants and potable water. But each is presented in a fun, easy-to-understand and illustrated message that kids will be eager to try themselves. Whitefeather also has a note to parents to use their own discretion when deciding if their child is old enough to try some of these tips, like building fires.
He also explains old Cherokee ways like how to breathe to keep cool on hot days, how to tell time without a watch and how to alleviate pain.
Each page is full of good advice on surviving in the outdoors that will benefit adults who read it as well as children.
Parents, Willy Whitefeather’s Outdoor Survival Handbook for Kids is a wonderful book to read with your kids – then use it to go outdoors and practice what you have learned together.
It’s a book I highly recommend.